CARE OF YOUNG PIGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19368, 27 July 1925, Page 8

CARE OF YOUNG PIGS

There is no branch of farming wher knowledge has increased more than ii the care and feeding of pigs. It wa an old-fashioned idea, that pigs die best in the sty, that wet, dirty strav bods were not much of a disability, am ■that the more skim milk the pigs couk guzzle the better it was for them. 1 is scarcely ncccessary to suggest tha to receive enough sustenance to kooj j a pig going from skim milk alone i ( would need to have the stomach of ai j elephant or the drinking capacity of ; . camel. The confinement of the sty > with its frequently inseparable accom . iplan intent of dirty conditions, is al > against the development of sound am healthy pigs, of young pigs particular . ly. Keeping them in cold, damp quar » tors lowers their vitality. and they an i unable to throw off any infection tha . may be about. They should be kep I dry and warm and given access to sun ; light. Besides this they must have I : suitable diet. Feeding coarsely ! ground grain, or much barley am i maize, is little more suitable for younj. pigs than filling them up with skin i milk. Dirty conditions are conducive to disease, as internal parasites take la heavy toll of young pigs. Lungworm [are possibly the most fatal. These small thread-like, whitish worms are (sometimes found in large numbers in [the air passages of the lungs. The irrigation caused by the worms produces inflammation, and finally the animal dies. Tn some cases the pig is able to throw off the infection. Using air slaked lime in the bedding is recommended as a preventative of this trouble. The pigs, working in the straw, inhale lhe. limo dust, which is disastrous to the worms. The round worm is frequently found in the llarval stage in the lungs of young ones. Those, troubles can be very largely avoided by ’the provision of dry conditions and room for the pigs to range.